Both NEWID() and NEWSEQUENTIALID() give globally unique values of type uniqueidentifier. NEWID() involves random activity, thus the next value is unpredictable, and it’s slower to execute. NEWSEQUENTIALID() doesn’t involve random activity, thus the next generated value can be predicted (not easily!) and executes faster than NEWID(). So, if you’re not concerned about the next value … Read more
I know what NewID() does, I’m just trying to understand how it would help in the random selection. Is it that (1) the select statement will select EVERYTHING from mytable, (2) for each row selected, tack on a uniqueidentifier generated by NewID(), (3) sort the rows by this uniqueidentifier and (4) pick off the top … Read more
here’s a clever solution: create view getNewID as select newid() as new_id create function myfunction () returns uniqueidentifier as begin return (select new_id from getNewID) end that i can’t take credit for. i found it here: http://omnibuzz-sql.blogspot.com/2006/07/accessing-non-deterministic-functions.html -don